Monday, May 12, 2008

As I have said before Ms Nichola Sharpe of eBay's Smoke and Spin Department is not a liar. Saturday's Silicon Valley Mercury News reports "In the United States, an "extremely high" number of eBay transactions, spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said, are conducted via PayPal." Usher Lieberman of the same department wrote "In the U.S., we are not mulling, planning, or otherwise seriously considering a move to PayPal-only," on the company's eBay Ink blog. To misquote the Immortal Bard..."The lady (or gentleman) doth protest too much, methinks..."

So what is all the furious spin about?

The art of spin by smoke and mirrors requires the target to look and listen to the spinner, not elsewhere. I went and looked elsewhere. The following list of internet payment service providers is taken from eBay's Accepted Payments Policy page Naturally it is tucked away out of sight, click on 'Some Examples' to find it.

Comments to the right are mine. Click here to enlarge. I have highlighted US providers in yellow.

To summarize: In the USA we have three alternatives to PayPal none of which were designed or intended for auction payment. We have a bank bill payment service, designed for recurring monthly bills from entities who are also participants in the system. We have ProPay, a merchant CC processer, the only thing which distinguishes it from many other similar services is the unrealistically low monthly limits and a very high price, and we have Xoom which charges buyers and requires the recipient give the buyer his bank account number. Xoom appears to be similar in many ways to the banned Western Union but not nearly as convenient.

Talk about comparing apples to oranges!Here we have an apple, an orange and a papaya to compare to the PayPal banana. The only other banana around is Google Checkout, which is of course banned because "This policy is designed to promote safe online shopping, and to encourage online payment methods that are safer, easier to use, and offer high levels of protection for users" How odd that the only alternatives to PayPal are no safer and certainly not easier to use. Guess we know why PayPal usage is extremely high.

If no competition is permitted on eBay then of course eBay is not 'mulling, planning, or otherwise seriously considering a move to PayPal-only', it is already Paypal only.

Now, please join me in a rousing chorus of the eBay PR department theme song

When you ask him anythingHe never answers "No."He just "Yesses" you to death,And as he takes your dough,He tells you:YES! We have no bananas,We have no bananas today.

Y'all come back and be sure to click VICTORIOUSLY on any interesting links in the sidebar!

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Howzit Henrietta!

I wonder why you did not consider the regular merchant card services that ARE allowed. For instance, when I first set up my eBay account I did use a merchant card service that was NOT ebay's PayPal; I used Nova Systems. The reason I got away from it was because of their monthly fees, charge per transaction, and percentage of transaction charge. My accountant pointed out that with all these fees, they were higher than PayPal's standard 2.9%.

I am no fan of PayPal; as a matter of fact am VERY anti-PayPal. I believe in the motto "PayPal Horrified" though I do have the verified seal on my eBay listings. I find PayPal to be very heavy handed, inconvenient, and elusive when it comes to removing one's own money from the system. They take a day to get money out of your bank but at least three to put money in your bank when transferring. I could go on for hours but won't.

I do know quite a few merchants who have merchant services for their listings (fixed or auction style) but I am not one of them because of the fees they charge; I am too new to be able to absorb these fees.

The rules for eBay state that PayPal or another merchant service provider must be offered; PayPal does not have to be it. Are these not the same rules for eBay.au? As we both know, I have been known to misread some things. I am back off to studying. Thanks for the posts!!